Vicious Cycle
by skycloud86
Summary: Over and over again, the vicious cycle goes. Oneshot set around Day Three, with a couple of OCs.


_**A/N- Quite a few OCs in this story, and the reason for that will come clear as it goes on. Takes place around the time of Day Three.**_

As the smoke rose gently from his gun, Jack Bauer was sure that Nina's death was not going to bring the satisfaction that he thought it would. As she laid there, her lifeless eyes staring up at the ceiling, her skin slowly greying as the last remnants of her existence were wiped from her body, Jack realised something, Without her to hate, without his vengeance to keep him going, what would he do? Gazing at her face, Jack didn't notice Alex Myers enter the room, and it was only when Alex walked closer to Nina's body that he noticed him. Looking at Alex, he could tell that the younger man was upset.

"This was always going to happen, like it was her fate, Alex. Do you understand that?," Jack spoke gently, and as Alex turned to face him, he was shocked to see the anger in Alex's eyes. Sure, Nina was his sister, but they weren't exactly close and hadn't been for years. Even so, Jack knew that Alex had a right to feel some sorrow over her death.

"Fate, Jack? Is that how you're going to justify your act of revenge, because I hope you realise what you've done to yourself," Alex whispered in a voice that unnerved Jack, and he held onto his gun just a little tighter, but hoped that it wouldn't come to that.

"You know what she did, Alex, just as I do," Jack replied, but Alex scoffed, before lifting his own gun quickly, so that it was inches away from Jack's forehead.

"And that makes it right, does it Jack?," Alex spoke, and Jack instinctively closed his eyes and, as the bullet tore through his brain and granting him a quick death, Alex watched as Jack's body slumped to the floor. Standing there for a few minutes, he watched Jack in the same way that Jack had watched Nina in the moments after her death, and contemplated his actions. Alex had never been a religious person, but he had once read a passage from the Bible that suited the situation, which stated that a person would be judged in the same way that they judged others, and he knew that someone might wish to avenge Jack's death, and that there would be a long line for that particular act. Turning around, he saw one of those people stood behind him, and they were pointing a gun at him, with tears in their eyes and a look of pure anger and betrayal.

"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind, Kim. Or, in this case, dead," Alex spoke as Kim struggled to decide whether or not to shoot, and he could tell that she was debating this.

"Shoot, Kim, it's OK," Alex said, his voice gentle and encouraging, which disturbed Kim. This was not the protective friend she knew.

"Drop the gun, Alex," Kim whispered, her eyes staring straight at his own. She had been in this situation just moments earlier with Nina, but her father wasn't about to come around the corner and shoot Alex. He was lying on the floor behind Alex, and she was trying hard not to look at her father's corpse. Suddenly, someone else appeared at the door, and Alex looked at him with a smirk on his face. Chase Edmunds was looking at him and Kim, and as he was unarmed was unable to do anything to save his girlfriend.

"He killed my father, Chase!," Kim spoke loudly, and Chase wanted nothing more than to beat the life out of Alex at that point. Alex, however, wasn't afraid of Chase Edmunds, and the beating would still be the act of vengeance that he knew would come.

"Maybe I should shoot Chase, Kim. Would that get you to kill me?," Alex spoke, and as he did moved his gun slowly towards Chase. Kim realised that Chase had no gun to defend himself with, and closed her eyes. It took her a few seconds after the gunshot to open them again, and when she did she saw Alex lying dead on the ground, shot through the heart. Sobbing, Kim collapsed to the floor and buried her face in her hands.

_**A few months later..**_

At her father's grave, Kim could find nothing to say as she gazed sadly at the golden letters embossed into black marble. The epitaph was simple, just her parent's names and lifespans, and Kim wondered if there was more to the reunion than just being laid to rest in the same grave. Maybe somewhere there was a life after this one, where her parents were truly reunited. Bending down to lay some lilies on the dry soil in front of the gravestone, she was shocked when she noticed a woman standing behind the stone and looking at her. The woman was taller than her, with brown hair, brown eyes and a tanned complexion, and Kim didn't recognise her.

"Kim Bauer, right?," the woman asked, and her accent was Midwestern, Chicagoan even, similar in a way to Alex's. Little things reminded her of the Myers siblings, and it didn't help her as she tried to come to terms with her father's death. Still, she knew that millions of people had such accents, and that it was silly to blame the woman for having a certain accent.

"Yeah, that's me," Kim replied, wondering who this woman was. She seemed to be in her early thirties, and appeared to be friendly. That appearance was shattered as the woman pulled out a handgun from her coat pocket.

"I'm Sarah Henderson, Kim, and you killed my friend, Alex Myers. I'm going to make this quick and painless, which is more than I think you deserve," Sarah spoke, and Kim froze and waited for her death. As the bullets riddled her small body, the last thing she saw was Sarah's furious eyes as the woman stood over her and shot her in the face. As the dusk began to roll in, Sarah made her getaway and left Kim's body to lie close to her parent's grave, the grass around her stained with crimson blood. As she sped away though, a car began to follow her, and she kept a close eye on the vehicle as she drove through the streets. Suddenly, the car began to speed up until the bumped into her own, and the driver of the second car repeated this again and again until Sarah lost control of her car. Swerving into a shop window, glass flying everywhere as the vehicle moved deeper inside the building, she began to lose conciousness. Hearing a car door slam and running footsteps, she realised that whoever was tailing her was most likely not happy with her, and she turned her head slightly as the man came into view.

"Who are you, and why did you kill Kim?," Chase yelled angrily, and Sarah groaned.

"I did it for Alex," Sarah croaked, a small smile growing on her face. Angry, Chase took out a knife from his pocket, and slit Sarah's throat deeply. Leaving the scene, Chase didn't look back as sirens could be heard approaching. He didn't really care if he was caught by the police or not. He had just seen his girlfriend murdered just months after her father had been killed, and now he could only hope that the madness was over.

_**A few days later..**_

Chase was sat in the living room, and he couldn't stop thinking about Kim. He had never been so attracted to someone before her, and now he felt deeply depressed. Contemplating handing himself into the police, or even just killing himself and getting it over with, his reverie was ended abruptly by a knock on the door. Walking over to the door slowly, whoever it was banged on the door a couple more times, and the knocks echoed through the house. Opening the door, he saw a well-dressed man, blond with green eyes and a blank expression on his face.

"Hello Mr Edmunds, I'm Agent Josh Papierski, CTU. I'm looking for a missing CTU agent who may or may not have been involved in your girlfriend's death. Her name is Sarah Henderson," Josh spoke, and he pulled out a picture of Sarah for Chase to see. As he stared at the photograph, he became pale.

"You should probably come in, Agent Papierski," Chase replied, and as he handed back the picture, he decided that it was time to come clean. As the pair entered the living room, Chase couldn't wait to confess. Barely able to look at the visitor, Chase took a deep breath.

"I killed her, Agent, I killed Sarah Henderson. I'll cooperate fully," Chase said, and as he turned around, Josh's fist made contact with Chase's cheek, sending the younger agent to the floor. Shocked, Chase looked at Josh and realised that he was visiting for his own taste of revenge.

"What are we doing, Josh? This is crazy!," Chase spoke, and Josh looked thoughtful.

"What we are doing, Chase, is indeed crazy. You see, we are in something called a vicious cycle, which began all those years ago when Nina Myers killed Jack Bauer's wife. It's possible to stop the vicious cycle, either through deciding not to take revenge or by the fact that noone is connected to the last person to be killed in the cycle. Of course, even if the reason for this cycle is lost long before the cycle ends, it will still continue. Like the Montagues and the Capulets, there is two sides competing against one another – those of us who have been aggrieved by Jack's family and associates, and those who have been aggrieved by Nina and her associates," Josh explained, but even this knowledge didn't stop him from pulling out a gun.

"You're going to kill me after telling me all about this cycle, Josh? Why not put an end to it now?," Chase replied, panicked and seemingly forgetting his suicidal thoughts of just a few moments before.

"I could, Chase, but to be honest, even if I didn't take revenge, there will be others who would. You see, in the early days of a vicious cycle, you have so many variables and people involved that it would be useless for one person to not take revenge in order to stop the cycle. Therefore, I have to do this," Josh spoke, his voice emotionless and determined. He sounded almost regretful, resigned to his fate as the killer of Chase Edmunds to avenge Sarah. A quick, clean shot to the forehead sealed this fate, and Josh chuckled quietly.

"Then again, let's see if I can't stop it," Josh whispered to himself. As he placed the gun next to the side of his head, he remembered Sarah and, as the bullet smashed into his brain, he remembered nothing.


End file.
